Best in Show: U.S. Marshals

A couple of weeks back I attended a labor law update hosted by Husch Blackwell, if you follow me on Twitter you were subjected to a series of tweets over the course of several hours highlighting some of the more significant points being made. Kicking off the event was C. Mauri Sheer, a former Secret Service agent and U.S. Marshal - Mauri discussed workplace safety and other such things - as a whole the day was well spent.

My roundabout point, federal agency work is abuzz right now in popular culture, with shows dramatizing the CIA (Covert Affairs, Burn Notice), the FBI (White Collar, Perception), and the Marshal service (Justified, Breakout Kings), plus numerous examples of reality series and countless films and video games. That in mind, I was left wondering, how do these agencies go about recruiting top talent - because if I'm left to my imagination and the concoctions of TV writers, it's all super clandestine and sneaky and filled with danger?

Then I saw this* and while it's not focused on recruitment (it's a fundraising video) it might as well be - the separation of fact from fiction and a glimpse into another world that most people don't get to see is interesting and a testament to the notion that brand - i.e. the bigger picture about an organization - can accomplish more than bring in dollars or attract candidates, a good platform does all these things and more.